The Ankeny baseball team moved back above the .500 mark with a pair of victories in the Brent Prange Classic on Saturday.
The Hawks rolled to an 11-1 win over Carlisle in five innings, then followed with a 3-1 triumph over Sioux City East. They extended their winning streak to four games while improving to 16-15 on the season.
“Every win is important this time of the year, especially with the substate pairings coming out this week,” said Ankeny coach Joe Balvanz, whose team was 9-6 at one point before dropping its next four games. “The guys have been playing well. They’ve just been competing hard, and they’re playing well at the right time.”
In the win over Carlisle (15-10), Ankeny used an eight-run outburst in the fifth inning to end the game via the mercy rule. The Hawks pounded out 20 hits, including 19 singles.
“The wind was blowing in,” Balvanz said. “The guys are smart enough to know that they’ve got to hit the ball on the ground or a line drive. That’s what they did.”
Kinnick Vos went 4-for-4, scored two runs and drove in three more to lead the way. The sophomore shortstop was named the team’s MVP for the game.
“He’s a good leader for us, regardless of his age,” Balvanz said.
Reid Johnson went 3-for-3 and had two RBIs. Carson Agan went 3-for-4, while Karsten Bernholtz went 2-for-4 and knocked in two runs.
Max Watson went 2-for-3 with a double and an RBI. Jack Clevidence and Ryan Maire also went 2-for-3 and scored a run, while Ben Sandvig had two RBIs for the Hawks.
Clevidence (1-0) earned the win in his first pitching appearance of the season. He allowed one earned run on one hit and had four strikeouts over the first three innings.
“That was a good outing from Jack as he comes back from a labrum injury that he had over the winter,” Balvanz said. “That’s a challenging surgery to come back from, and he was limited on his pitch count. But I thought the second and third innings he looked really sharp.”
Will Davies then tossed two scoreless innings of relief, allowing a pair of hits.
Brock Adamson (5-2) was the winning pitcher against Sioux City East. He replaced starter Travis Gerstel with two outs in the second and tossed 3 1/3 hitless innings while racking up four strikeouts.
Alex Griess then followed with two more hitless innings to preserve the win.
“Adamson and Griess needed to do a bullpen anyway, so they went ahead and got their work in during the game,” Balvanz said. “They needed just 51 pitches to throw 5 1/3 perfect innings.”
The Black Raiders (21-12) took an early 1-0 lead before Ankeny rallied for two runs in the third. The Hawks added an insurance run in the fifth.
Watson went 3-for-3 with two doubles and two RBIs. He was named the team’s MVP.
“Max just continues to get timely hits and drive in runs,” Balvanz said. “The whole lineup just had great at-bats up and down.”
Agan also went 3-for-3 and drove in a run. Sandvig had a double.
Ankeny will play a CIML Conference doubleheader at Waukee Northwest (15-19) on Monday. The Hawks won an earlier meeting, 2-1, on June 5.
